Smelling Sin

Shakespeare says, “Do you smell a fault?” (King Lear, i.
1); and Iago says to Othello, “One may smell in this a will most rank.” Probably the smell of dogs may have something to do with such phrases,
but St. Jerome furnishes even a better source. He says that St.
Hilarion had the gift of knowing what sins or vices anyone was inclined
to by simply smelling either the person or his garments; and by the
same faculty he could discern good feelings and virtuous propensities.
(Life of Hilarton, A.D. 390.)